Method for enabling an application recorded in a radiocommunication terminal to access functions of the terminal and terminal implementing said method

ABSTRACT

A method of enabling at least one application ( 22 ) stored in a radiocommunications terminal ( 10 ) to access functions of said terminal ( 10 ), the terminal ( 10 ) being suitable for enabling data to be exchanged in both directions in application of a data standard implementing a transfer channel that conveys so-called “AT” commands, the terminal ( 10 ) including an AT command manager ( 15 ), the method being characterized in that access from the stored application ( 22 ) to the terminal ( 10 ) takes place by exchanging AT commands via the AT command manager ( 15 ).

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a method of enabling at least oneapplication stored in a radiocommunications terminal to access functionsof the terminal. The invention also relates to a radiocommunicationsterminal implementing the method.

2. Discussion of the Related Art

A non-exclusive field of application of the invention is that ofradiocommunications terminals operating in a cellularradiocommunications network. The invention applies in particular to asystem implementing the global system for mobile communications (GSM).

A mobile radiocommunications terminal may include stored applications.These applications can then implement data exchanges between theradiocommunications terminal and the network. An application exchangesdata via the software interface of the terminal that is known as theapplication programming interface (API).

Furthermore, data exchanges between two pieces of data processingterminal equipment, e.g. between a radiocommunications terminal and aconventional portable terminal of the portable microcomputer type, cantake place only with so-called AT commands being exchanged between thetwo terminals via a modem. These AT commands are described in the GSMstandards.

AT commands are thus dedicated to configuring and controlling modems.

Until now, AT commands have never been used in an application context,i.e. when the user of a radiocommunications terminal seeks to make useof applications situated in the terminal.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a method of enablingan application stored in a radiocommunications terminal to accessfunctions of the terminal, and a terminal implementing the method thatsubstantially obviates one or more of the problems due to limitationsand disadvantages of the related art.

An object of the invention is to make the functions offered by ATcommands available to any type of environment for executing applicationsin a radiocommunications terminal.

To this end, the invention provides a method of enabling at least oneapplication stored in a radiocommunications terminal to access functionsof said terminal, said terminal being suitable for enabling data to beexchanged in both directions in application of a data standardimplementing a transfer channel that conveys so-called “AT” commands,said terminal including an AT command manager, the method beingcharacterized in that access from the stored application to the terminaltakes place by exchanging AT commands via said AT command manager.

In a particular embodiment, the AT commands are exchanged via thehypertext transfer protocol (HTTP).

The invention also provides a terminal for implementing the method, saidterminal supporting at least one stored application and having means forenabling data to be exchanged in both directions in application of adata standard implementing a transfer channel conveying AT commands, andalso having AT command management means, the terminal beingcharacterized in that it includes means for enabling the applicationstored in said terminal to access functions of the terminal byexchanging AT commands via the AT command management means.

Other characteristics and advantages of the invention will appear onreading the following description of an embodiment of the inventiongiven by way of non-limiting illustration, and with reference to thedrawing specified below.

Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth inthe description which follows, and in part will be apparent from thedescription, or may be learned by practice of the invention. Theobjectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized andattained by the structure particularly pointed out in the writtendescription and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.

To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purposeof the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, the methodof enabling an application stored in a radiocommunications terminal toaccess functions of the terminal, and a terminal implementing the methodincludes a method of enabling at least one application (22) stored in aradiocommunications terminal (10) to access functions of said terminal(10), said terminal (10) being suitable for enabling data to beexchanged in both directions in application of a data standardimplementing a transfer channel that conveys so-called “AT” commands,said terminal (10) including an AT command manager (15), the methodbeing characterized in that access from the stored application (22) tothe terminal (10) takes place by exchanging AT commands via said ATcommand manager (15).

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and areintended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute apart of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention andtogether with the description serve to explain the principles of theinvention. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a terminal using the principle of the invention;and

FIG. 2 is a diagram of an HTTP message including an AT command asdescribed in the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of thepresent invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings.

FIG. 1 shows a radiocommunications terminal 10 operating in aradiocommunications network. The terminal 10 is suitable for enablingdata to be exchanged in both directions using a data standard thatimplements a transfer channel conveying AT commands.

Conventionally, radiocommunications terminals include an AT commandmanager enabling them to behave like a modem with respect to otherterminals such as a personal computer, thus enabling commands to beexchanged between the terminal 10 and the personal computer. In theinvention, AT commands are exchanged within a given terminal 10.

In FIG. 1, the terminal 10 includes an AT command manager 15, a fixed orremovable internal memory 20, and stored applications 22 and 24 ofdifferent kinds, for example of the banking type and of the commercialordering type.

The stored applications 22 and 24 may be supplied with the terminal orthey may be downloaded by the user from the radiocommunications network.After they have been downloaded, the applications 22 and 24 may bestored in the fixed or removable memory 20.

By downloading applications 22 and 24, the user of the terminal 10 canmake use of applications 22 and 24 depending on the requirements of theuser, whereas otherwise it would have been necessary to implement theapplications in the terminal 10 even if the user does not use them.

These applications 22 and 24 may require access to the functions of theterminal 10 that relate to the field of telephony, for example access tothe radiocommunications network in order to undertake operations withthe environment outside the terminal 10. They therefore need to make useof the network access resources of the terminal 10.

The applications 22 and 24 access telephony functions using AT commands.

The AT command manager 15 enables AT commands to be handled. It receivesrequests and returns responses to and from the applications 22 or 24.

The AT command manger 15 is made accessible to the applications 22 and24 via an HTTP server or via an interface protocol internal to theterminal so as to enable AT commands to be exchanged, these commandsbeing encapsulated by the HTTP protocol within HTTP messages 30.

HTTP messages containing AT commands 30 comprise a header 32 and a body34 which are described below.

An HTTP server has connection ports 26, some of which are used foraccess to the AT command manager 15.

When the applications 22 and 24 need to make use of the network accessresources of the terminal 10, they contact the HTTP server on the port26 in order to access the AT command manager 15.

The use of a plurality of ports 26 makes it possible to restrict usageof certain commands to certain applications as a function of a givenlevel of confidence.

By way of example, the level of confidence can relate to thecircumstances under which the applications 22 and 24 were downloaded,depending on where the applications come from or on whether or not asecure mechanism was used for downloading.

Each port gives access to a group of AT commands sharing a common levelof sensitivity. The sensitivity of an application is defined as afunction of its potential for harming a user, i.e. intrusion into theconfidential portion of the subscriber identity module (SIM) card, orissuing accesses to the network that will lead to large bills.Sensitivity can be defined by the manufacturer or by the operator.

In the preset example, AT commands are exchanged in the form of a fewstrings of alphanumeric characters, thereby consuming little of theterminal's resources.

The HTTP server accepts connection requests made by an application 22 onthe port 26 requested by the application to enable a request and theassociated response to be exchanged in the form of AT commandsencapsulated in an HTTP message 30.

For example, the application 22 opens a connection on the HTTP serverwith the AT command manager 15 over the port 26.

The application 22 builds the request HTTP message constituted by aheader 32 and a body 34.

The application 22 then specifies in the header 32 of its HTTP message30 the number of characters in the body 34. The body 34 of the HTTPmessage 30 comprises the AT command written as a sequence ofalphanumeric characters.

The HTTP response message 30 from the AT command manager 15 is sent viathe connection to the HTTP server.

The HTTP response message 30 has a header 32 specifying the status ofthe request. The body 34 of the HTTP response message 30 contains theresponse written as a sequence of alphanumeric characters.

When the user requests execution of the application 22, the applicationmakes a connection to the HTTP server in order to access the AT commandmanager 15. It thus gains access to the telephony functions of theterminal 10 by exchanging AT commands via the HTTP server.

There follows an example of a JAVA type application 22 that has justbeen downloaded into a terminal 10 by the user of the terminal 10. Theapplication 22 needs to discover the name of the manufacturer of theterminal 10.

This is an example of the request from the application 22 to the ATcommand manager 15:

GET/HTTP/1.1 (HTTP connection open)

Content-length: 7 (number of characters in the body 34 of the HTTPmessage 30, i.e. in the AT command)

AT+CGMI (AT command sent to the AT command manager 15)

This is an example of a response:

HTTP/1.1<status value (200=OK)> (connection by the AT command manager 15authorized via the HTTP server)

Content-length: 15 (number of characters in the body 34 of the HTTPmessage 30, i.e. in the AT command send by the AT command manager 15)

ALCATEL-MPD (AT command informing the application that it is running ona terminal made by ALCATEL)

OK

In the above example, the application 22 accesses information of verylow sensitivity level (name of the manufacturer of the terminal 10).

Nevertheless, the application 22 may require information or resourcesfrom a very sensitive level of the terminal 10, e.g. its SIM card.

To make this possible, the AT command manger 15 may offer an application22 access to distinct groups of AT commands of greater or lessersensitivity level via distinct ports.

The application 22 may be downloaded either from the operator of theradiocommunications network, the manufacturer, or a third party (e.g. abank).

The level of confidence given to the application 22 will then depend onwhere it comes from: level of confidence will be higher for a downloadfrom the manufacturer than from the operator, and it will be higher fromthe operator than from a third party.

Depending on confidence level, the application 22 will or will not haveaccess to groups of AT commands at a very sensitive level in theterminal 10.

The operating environment of the terminal 10 then verifies whether theapplication has user rights over the requested port, i.e. whether it canaccess the information requested.

The invention thus enables use to be made of an element that is alreadypresent in the radiocommunications terminal: namely the AT commandmanager, and in an applications context that is made secure.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that variousmodifications and variations can be made in the method of enabling anapplication stored in a radiocommunications terminal to access functionsof the terminal, and a terminal implementing the method of the presentinvention without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention.Thus, it is intended that the present invention cover the modificationsand variations of this invention provided they come within the scope ofthe appended claims and their equivalents.

1. A method of restricting access of an application stored in a memoryof a radiocommunications terminal to a function of theradiocommunications terminal, the method comprising: receiving an ATcommand from the application stored in the memory of theradiocommunications terminal, the AT command requesting access to thefunction of the radiocommunications terminal; determining an access portcorresponding to the requested function, the access port being one of aplurality of access ports, wherein each of the plurality of access portscorresponds to at least one function of the radiocommunications terminaland at least one AT command sharing a common level of sensitivityrequired to access the at least one function of the radiocommunicationsterminal via the respective access port; determining whether to grantthe application access to the access port as a function of the commonlevel of sensitivity of the AT command and a level of confidenceassociated with the application; and admitting the application's requestfor access to the function of the radiocommunications terminal when theapplication is granted access to the access port.
 2. The method of claim1, further comprising denying the application's request for access tothe function of the radiocommunications terminal when the application isnot granted access to the access port.
 3. The method of claim 1, whereinthe AT command is a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) messagecomprising at least a header and a body, the header containing a numberof characters making up the AT command and the body containing thecharacters proper of the AT command.
 4. A radiocommunications terminalcomprising: a memory configured to store an application; and a ATcommand manager comprising a plurality of access ports, each access portcorresponding to at least one function of the radiocommunicationsterminal, an AT command having a common level of security required forthe application to access the respective access port, the AT commandmanager being configured to: receive an AT command from the storedapplication requesting access to a particular function of theradiocommunications terminal; determine which of the plurality of accessports corresponds to the requested function of the radiocommunicationsterminal; determine whether to grant the application access to theaccess port as a function of the common level of sensitivity of the ATcommand and a level of confidence associated with the application; andadmit the application's request for access to the function of theradiocommunications terminal when the application is granted access tothe access port.
 5. The radiocommunications terminal of claim 4, whereinthe AT command manager is further configured to deny the application'srequest for access to the function of the radiocommunications terminalwhen the application is not granted access to the access port.
 6. Theradiocommunications terminal of claim 4, wherein the server is ahypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) server.
 7. A radiocommunicationsterminal comprising: means for receiving an AT command from anapplication stored in a memory of the radiocommunications terminal, theAT command requesting access to the function of the radiocommunicationsterminal; means for determining an access port corresponding to therequested function, the access port being one of a plurality of accessports, wherein each of the plurality of access ports corresponds to atleast one function of the radiocommunications terminal and at least oneAT command sharing a common level of sensitivity required to access theat least one function of the radiocommunications terminal via therespective access port; means for determining whether to grant theapplication access to the access port as a function of the common levelof sensitivity of the AT command and a level of confidence associatedwith the application; and means for admitting the application's requestfor access to the function of the radiocommunications terminal when theapplication is granted access to the access port.